The photo at right is the family of Mary Burns and James Gorham.
They are in the center. The photo is dated December 1893. Mary would have
been 49 in the photo.

Letters sent to Mary BURNS Gorham

Township: Burlington Township, Bradford County
PA

Transcribed by David Kester

Year: 1857-1869

Photo Source : David Kester

Mary Angeline BURNS Gorham 1844 -1916

This is a collection of letters, poems and notes which, for the most
part, were sent to my great-grandmother Mary Gorham during the period from
1857 to 1869. She was born and reared in Burlington Township in the area
formerly called "East Burlington". The Burns’ lived up on Kendall Hill,
just north of the present day village of Luther’s Mills with the Campbells,
Kendalls and Lanes. I have referred to them as the "Burlington Bunch" in
the chart below. They, along with the Gorham families of LeRaysville in
eastern Bradford County’s Pike Township and in other neighboring counties
had been many times joined by marriage. They kept in close touch with each
other and wrote letters in between their frequent visits. These letters
are presented in chronological order, divided into five distinct periods
as follows:

Part IA Past is Prologue (1852-1857—Here
I have included four letters written by John B. Gorham from Lycoming County
because he was to become Mary’s father-in-law and the letters were to his
second wife’s family, the Alexander Lanes of Luther’s Mills. Additionally,
John B’s daughter, Eliza Jane, befriended Mary during the time that they
both lived in Burlington and remained close even after she married Eliza’s
half brother James J. Gorham and moved to the Gorham homestead in LeRaysville.

Part IBSchool Days (1859-1861)—contains
letters written by Mary’s former schoolmates, neighbors and friends in
surrounding townships. It begins however, with a poem "To Viola" Goodwin,
first wife to Mary’s future husband J. J. Gorham which seems to foresee
the tragic death that opened the door to Mary’s happily wedded life with
him.

Part IIA Love and Marriage (1861-1862)A—includes
eighteen letters and poems which weave a story of the ten month period
between Mary’s introduction to a grieving James by his half sister (and
her old friend) Eliza Jane, and their subsequent "secret" out-of–state
marriage.
Part IIB Love and Marriage (1861-1862)B

Part III War Hits Home (1862-1863) A—(War
Hits Home (1862-1863) B)details the hopes and fears of those
on the home-front of the Civil War and the equally sad tales of a widespread
diphtheria epidemic and the shocking death of Mary’s beloved brother Jimmie
during the siege of Vicksburg. Also, during this time a three day skirmish
known locally as the "Pa battels" brought the war practically into their
backyards.

Part IV The Draft, Disease and Death (1863-1864)—chronicles
a period in Bradford County history when every woman feared losing her
husband to the war effort and her children to disease simultaneously.

Part V Lee on the Lamb, and Life
Goes On (1864-1869)—tracks
the course of the war’s final days through the descriptive letters of Mary’s
brother Philander P. Burns and ends with a hopeful missive from Mary’s
favorite niece Floretta (Kendall) Lane.

In addition to the Burlington Bunch chart,
I
have also included an 1869 assessment map of Burlington Township showing
the location of each family as well as the dozens of others mentioned in
the letters. The photograph is of James and Mary Gorham and family taken
on December 25, 1893.

The opportunity to bring this amazing window on nineteenth century Pennsylvania
life to untold numbers of people has been a thrill beyond description.
Obviously I didn’t do it alone. I have to thank my wife for her encouragement
and her insistence that I do it right whenever I got impatient. I am also
appreciative of her discriminating eye, that was able to decipher one hundred
and forty year old writing, some of which was in faint pencil and had been
written by candlelight on a squatting soldier’s knee, in a desolate Virginia
swamp. I am eternally grateful to a Bradford County researcher for her
tireless effort in finding details of my ancestors’ existence which made
them truly come alive. Mostly I have to thank the three generations my
family who had the wisdom to preserve this historical treasure until the
technology to spread it throughout the world became available. Dave